Topps FINALLY sent customers their INSTANT PACKS cards, and the results are SHOCKING! 😳
A collectible card YouTuber receives and unboxes Topps Chrome Black Instant Packs after a 5-week delay instead of the promised 10-15 business days. While the cards themselves are decent with several valuable parallels and autographs, he highlights significant concerns about inconsistent card protection, with some valuable cards only in thin protectors rather than top loaders.
Summary
The creator received his Topps Chrome Black Instant Packs order on October 8th, despite an expected turnaround of 10-15 business days—over a month late. The $68.34 order contained multiple packs at $100 each and arrived heavily wrapped in bubble wrap and duct tape. Upon opening, he found cards in various states of protection: some valuable parallels and autographs were only placed in thin sleeve protectors rather than sturdy top loaders, which concerned him given the price point. The card pulls included numerous base cards and several hits, including exclusive turquoise and black glitter parallels (numbered to 64), autographed cards numbered to various amounts (15, 75, 250, 299), and various rookie cards. He noted seeing similar complaints on Twitter about expensive cards shipped in plain envelopes without proper protection. Despite these protection issues, he found the product competitive compared to hobby boxes and appreciated seeing exclusive parallel variations produced specifically for the Instant Packs release. He emphasized that Topps may not have been prepared for the order volume, which could explain the delays and inconsistent packing quality. The reviewer plans to open his Pristine order next and hopes for improved packaging and faster turnaround times with future releases.
Key Insights
- The order took over a month to arrive (August 30 to October 8) when expected turnaround was 10-15 business days, causing customers to miss the most active market period immediately after product release
- Valuable cards with low print runs, such as exclusive parallel rookie cards and autographs numbered to 75 or less, were placed only in thin protectors rather than top loaders despite the $100 per pack price point
- Topps created exclusive glitter parallel variations specifically for Instant Packs that don't appear in regular products, with cards like turquoise and black glitter parallels numbered to 64
- Some free promotional cards from Fanatics Fest were better protected than paid Instant Packs products, which contradicts the expected quality hierarchy
- Despite the protection concerns and late delivery, the Instant Packs format offered better value than hobby boxes while containing some of the largest chase cards in the Chrome Black checklist, including superfractors and large-scale autographs
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] I finally got my cards from the Topps Instant packs, and for those who missed the reveal, this is a digital unboxing of actual cards from a real Topps series. So, Topps Chrome Black was first and I finally got the cards. I was advised to write this down as some people have seen some very interesting results, so let's check if this is indeed the case today. So if you like these videos and want to see more unboxings like this — like, comment, and subscribe by clicking these buttons below. It's free , helps the channel and gives you a chance to enter the Bowman Football hobby box giveaway, info in the description, good luck. I took…
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